John McCain: Nothing's Sacred
McCain has definitely made some gaffes on the religious front, but some may have been lost among his other more popular missteps - Sunnis/Shiites, Czechoslovakia, the Iraq/Pakistan border, the disgrace of Social Security, etc. Here's a quick look
at how McCain is faring on the religious front which may have you humming REM's "Losing My Religion" by the time you're done reading.
- McCain's great-grandfather was an Episcopal minister, and according to McCain his father prayed twice daily on his knees. John McCain attended and graduated from Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va.
- McCain's biography in the 2007 edition of the Congressional Directory lists his faith as "Episcopalian". His online biography at Congress.org also lists "Episcopal" as his religion. The Hill, the "Newspaper for and about the U.S. Congress", also lists McCain's religion as "Episcopal" on his biography page.
- In May 2007, McCain's campaign staff and literature identified the senator as an "Episcopalian" and in June 2007, the McClatchy Company newspapers published an article reporting, "McCain still calls himself an Episcopalian" and detailing that McCain's second wife Cindy and two of their children had been baptized in the Baptist faith, but the senator had not.
McCain stated, "I didn't find it necessary to do so for my spiritual needs."
- McCain's campaign staff identified him as "Episcopalian" in a questionnaire prepared for an ABC News' debate on August 5, 2007 and at a fall 2007 Fox News debate, each candidate was introduced with a short description that included religion. McCain's was described as "Episcopalian".
- McCain's biography is featured in the political sections of many leading news organizations and other reputable Internet sites. In them, his religion is listed as "Episcopal":
Washington Post;
Biography.com;
Republican-Candidates.org;
Gannett News Service Election 2008 Information Center;
2008USPresident.com;
CNN Election Center;
Chicago Tribune;
NationalJournal.com;
Project Vote Smart;
Dallas Morning News;
Presidential-Candidates.org;
Fox News Elections 2008;
Yet while campaigning in heavily-Baptist South Carolina in September 2007, when McCain was asked what role his Episcopal faith plays in his life, McCain told the Associated Press,
"It plays a role in my life. By the way, I'm not Episcopalian. I'm Baptist."
In June 2007, when asked if had been baptized, McCain responded, ""I didn't find it necessary to do so for my spiritual needs."
Note To McCain: In order to be Baptist, one must be baptized.
In March of 2008, McCain appointed Catholic priest Deal Hudson as "faith advisor" on his campaign's "Catholics for McCain" committee. Hudson is alleged to have gotten an 18-year old student drunk and had sex with her when she was his student at Fordham University in 1994. Hudson resigned from the faculty that year. Hudson has made several public statements of apology regarding his improper sexual encounter with the student.
In July of 2008 he again expressed "guilt and regret." Some Catholics also criticized Hudson for brokering a meeting between conservative Catholics and San Antonio megapreacher John Hagee. Many Catholics were upset by Hagee's anti-Catholic comments and writings. Despite calls from some Catholic activists to remove Hudson from his campaign, as of August 2008 he remains as a faith advisor.
At a campaign speech in Virginia Beach in February of 2000, McCain stated, "Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton on the left, or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right."
Apparently he forgot to add, "Unless you really need their votes", because a few years later, McCain was singing a different hymn.
- While on NBC's Hardball in 2000, when asked whether he stood by his description of Falwell as an "agent of intolerance" McCain said, "I must not and will not retract anything that I said in that speech at Virginia Beach. It was carefully crafted, it was carefully thought out." Yet by April 2006, when asked by Tim Russert on Meet the Press he he still thought Falwell was an "agent of intolerance", McCain replied, "No, I don't."
On May 13, 2006, McCain delivered the commencement address at Liberty University's graduation. Liberty University was founded by Jerry Falwell and Falwell was its chancellor and lawyer at the time. Falwell strongly supported racial segregation. He claimed that Tinky Winky, the purple Teletubby was a gay role model, and blamed the September 11 attacks on the pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays, lesbians, ACLU and People For the American Way.
- In February 2008, at a news conference in San Antonia, McCain said, "I'm very honored by Pastor John Hagee's endorsement today," an endorsement McCain actively sought.
This despite Pastor Hagee's history of calling Catholicism "The Great Whore", blaming Hurricane Katrina on gays, and saying Hitler was sent by God to fulfill his will of having the Jews re-establish a state of Israel.
View Video
- At a campaign rally in Cinncinatti, Ohio, again in February 2008, McCain said, "I'm truly honored today to have one of one of the truly great leaders in America, a moral compass, a spiritual guide — Pastor Rod Parsley."
Parsley has stated that "Islam is an anti-Christ religion that intends through violence to conquer the world." Parsley has further stated that "The fact is that America was founded — I'm gonna stagger you right now — America was founded in part with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed." He also said that Mohammed received revelations from demon spirits."
Though he had pursued Parsley's support, McCain later rejected and repudiated Parsley, as he did with Reverend Hagee.
View Video
On August 1, the McCain campaign released a television ad titled "The One" in which
Obama is cast as a messiah. The ad uses an unauthorized clip of Charlton Heston as Moses in The Ten Commandments. "It should be known," the narrator intones at the start, "that in 2008, the world will be blessed. They will call him The One..."
The ad also misquotes Obama on his remark about becoming a symbol (view the accurate quote below).
As much fun as McCain may be having taking jabs at Obama's popularity, there are those that take their religion seriously. Using religious figures such as Moses to strike at his opponent is considered nothing short of blasphemous by some.
While a lot of us can have a sense of humor about this, you can bet that there are members of the religious right that don't find parodies of biblical prophets all that funny.
Comment
McCain appears to be a man who desperately wants the conservative vote and will do almost anything to get it. I suspect the religious right take the issue of faith a bit more seriously than McCain does. Maybe he should rethink his strategy.
Sources:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,996351,00.html
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/09/john-mccain-the.html
http://www.congress.org/bio/id/192
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/16589.html
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/09/john-mccain-the.html
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/07/16/catholic_activists_ask_mccain.html
Obama's Actual Quote:
"It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It's about America. I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions."
|
